I’m moving! To my own surprise, I’ve bought a property outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and will be moving mid-February to my new home.
My work, like many of us, has been online during the pandemic. I ended up canceling my office lease, and finding rich opportunities working with clients, training constellation students, and leading major events all online. As for many, this opened up the possibility that I could live and work in new ways. After a pair of mini-sabbaticals last summer to the southwest region, it gradually became clear that a call to live in the area was now possible and the right thing to try.
My work will still be available to all of you. Many of you only know me as an online practitioner, so for you, nothing will really change. However, I have purchased a property with room for seeing clients and holding workshops, and after my first really successful experiment with an in-person event earlier this month in Oakland — my four-day Mini Training — I am eager to return to more in-person work. Those of you in the region will find working with me in-person newly possible in the coming months, after I’ve settled in and evaluated the pandemic situation locally. Others may consider traveling to the beautiful southwest region for workshops and trainings. And for now (see below) the West Coast Constellations Intensive will remain in Northern California as always. For everyone else, please continue to sign up for private work and a wide range of offerings online.
To my San Francisco Bay Area friends, colleagues and clients: I will miss you! I am only just starting to get how much I will miss you. I’m sure some of you have been holding off on work with me until we can work in-person again, and I regret that that will not be happening anymore in the Bay Area. Please do stay in touch online, and look out for offerings in New Mexico that might make travel worth it — it’s a beautiful and spiritually-deep region, and a great place to come for enriching work and awesome vacations.
I titled this announcement, Life as Pilgrimage. This move has a quality of a holy endeavor to me. I’ve taken part in a number of real pilgrimages over the years: to the Holy Land, to Chimayo in New Mexico, to saints’ sites in Russia, and to ancient Mayan places in the Yucatan. Pilgrimages are very special to me — a renewing act that takes me into mystery and holiness as an act of devotion and exploration.
If you read up on the topic of pilgrimages, however, wise teachers always have a warning. They basically say that, if you don’t take God with you, you won’t find her where you are going. That is, don’t over-dramatize the pilgrimage; ultimately, it’s about finding the holy in the everyday.
Since I first visited Northern New Mexico around 2000 or so, I’ve been touched deeply every time I visit, and felt a calling, which up until now I haven’t been able to follow. Now I can, and I am. I intend to settle well where I am going, be part of the community, and root myself as deeply as possible. Northern New Mexico is special, but it’s also nothing special — it’s just a place where people have lived and worked, loved and lost, for many thousands of years. It’s simply home to them, and holy for being that, whether they name it that way or not. Apparently, with humility, I seek to join them there.
And I will miss California deeply. Another spiritually and culturally rich region! I’ve lived here over 20 years, and I’ve gotten to know its nooks and crannies pretty well. There is something really precious about a place you’ve gotten to know like that — it makes for rootedness and maturity. I first visited San Francisco when I was 12 years old, and I knew it would be an important place for me. And so it has been, off and on, for all my adult life since moving here after college. I offer a deep bow of gratitude to this area and its people — past and present — who gave me a home to find myself and heal as an adult, and reach for my best vision of myself and my work. Its a debt that can never be repaid, really.
What is your experience of pilgrimage, home, rootedness and the holy? I welcome any experiences that have arisen in your mind in response to my sharing. Feel free to personally reach out to me, but also, if you have a story to share about the holy in your life, consider responding on my blog below so we can all read it!
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